LYNN CANAL (Historic Information)

Lynn Canal is the water so coveted by and contended for by Great Britain in the treaty arguments of 1825 and 1903. It certainly is the most clean-cut channel in Southeastern Alaska, and would have made the most ideal port for Canada.

On the starboard side as we ascended were Mendenhall, Herbert, Eagle, Mead and other glaciers, hanging from the 7,000-foot peaks along the tops of which the boundary line zigzags northerly. On the port side hung the spider-like glacier legs of the Muir Glacier, covering the Fairweather Range in a cap of ice.

Just as we were passing the north end of the gold belt, the captain wanted to know if I saw a town on the bank. I told him I did not; but he insisted that there was one, and with the aid of the glasses we observed it to be one house, and which he said was Seward City.

The Auk Indians, who scared Whidby out of his senses, are almost extinct. When Whidby, at Vancouver's request, explored the canal he thought the natives wanted to kidnap him, and he named the point "Seduction," and in his attempt to get away other Indians followed him, and the next landing he called "Retreat" (on Admiralty Island). On the westerly side toward the head of the canal and up the valley of the Chilkat there were and are more Indians. The trails of the Porcupine gold stampede, the old Dalton trails and Indian and traders' trails to the interior passed pj by Healey's Store (Haines Mission), and inland to Wells and Klukwan, and although not much used now, are still very plainly marked. A railroad has been projected to the interior over this route.